26 September 2010

Thoughts on Online Streaming

Despite having cable nowadays (when I switched internet services, I got cable service automatically), I find myself watching most of my TV online anyway, as it turns out that sans DVR, I am really, really bad at remembering to turn on the TV when it's time for a program to start. (Seriously, at least thrice in the past week, I have realized it was eight minutes past the time I meant to start watching TV.) So let us discuss the legal ways I watch TV via the internet!
  • Hulu.com: This is my preferred method. The "subscription" option means the shows I want will pop up in my queue when they're available, and I usually know when they will stop being available. (This is not foolproof, as sometimes dates change and I discover when it's too late. This is probably due to behind-the-scenes contract changes, rather than Hulu being unreliable.) Most NBC, USA, SyFy, ABC, and FOX shows are streamed to Hulu, as well as a plethora of other things, including clips and promos and older movies, and the quality is decent. There is also a premium service, which is tempting, but I am not quite addicted enough to pony up for a monthly subscription.
  • CWTV.com: All the shows on the CW, which are usually available a couple of days after original airing. They also tend to have handful of episodes available at once, so you can catch up on the past three or four episodes you've missed. On the downside, the quality is not as good as on TV, and the streaming is horrible, just horrible, no matter what speed internet I've used. Sometimes the audio will cut out, and then the video will run for a couple of minutes and then freeze as the audio catches up. It is often not worth pausing, because then the entire thing will freeze, forcing me to restart! Sometimes I get an endless buffering signal, and though the ads have not quite kicked in this year, last year I was subjected to long strings of repetitive promos. I am not opposed to commercials--they have to make their money, after all--but I am opposed to watching the same commercials a dozen times per episode.
  • Comedy Central: I go directly to TheDailyShow.com and TheColbertReport.com to watch full episodes. They usually have a couple of weeks' worth of episodes available, the quality is pretty great, and ads are usually up-front, rather than during imposed breaks. Pausing/restarting is almost seamless.
  • CBS.com: Most CBS shows are available--daytime, prime time, classic, AND late night--and the quality is great. While on rare occasions there are buffering problems, generally pausing/restarting is seamless, and there's a new feature now where, when you pause, the window will minimize and show an ad until you restart again. Also, unique to CBS as far as I've seen, the commercials often allow for elements of interactivity, wherein you take little quizzes, or select what "theme" of ad you'd like to watch, or even play a little game. A good use of the platform, I think.
  • TNT.tv: While navigating the menu to get to the full episodes is a pain--it's a little counter-intuitive, I think, to have to go to the show, then full episodes, only to have to scroll through all the shows again--the quality is very good, and I didn't have any problems with buffering.
  • TheWB.com: Lots of shows available, though usually not full seasons. It's not very HQ, and the buffering is sometimes a problem, but if you're looking for older favorites, it's worth checking this site out.
  • Netflix: I don't use this often, mostly because I dislike the way the way the queue presents full seasons for streaming. (I can't explain it, honestly.) The quality is AMAZING, though, and you have lots of movies in addition to TV.
  • ABC.com: In the past, I haven't been impressed with their streaming, as the quality was less than HQ and hiccuppy (both on ABC and for ABC Family), but when I watched the pilot of No Ordinary Family, the quality was much improved, almost comparable with CBS. It's a bit redundant, however, since most ABC shows are on Hulu anyway.
  • Nick.com: The quality is decent, but the menus are interminable and difficult to navigate, and streaming problems do occur. Still, if you want an Avatar: The Last Airbender fix, this is a guaranteed place to find it.
Anyway! Those are all the streaming sites I've tried. Are there any others you'd like to recommend or anti-recommend?

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